Retro Game Friday: Front Mission

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m back with a game that was hugely popular back in it’s day. It’s Front Mission!

Plot: I forgot how sad this story is, honestly after looking up the story for a refresher I was tempted to not bother covering this game due to how freaking depressing the story is. The story is good, but damn is it dark and depressing.

Gameplay: This was a pure tactical RPG and boy did it do it well for it’s time and helped paved the way for games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Advance Wars in the future. You could customize the Wanzers to a pretty deep degree given the tech limitations and the standard of quality at the time. That being said it’s a nearly a pure single player game and while you could play with another it’s hard to do that when you shared a screen.

Art: The art was pretty great for it’s time, and it’s aged fairly well. It’s not the best of it’s era, but it holds up pretty well.

Music: I don’t remember it much at all, sorry.

Overall: A great game, but if you don’t like bawling your eyes out you might want to skip it due to the dark nature of the story.

For those who like: Mechas, Tactical RPGs, Drama, Good Story, Great Gameplay.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Retro Game Friday: Fire Emblem Path of Radiance

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering a game I enjoyed quite a bit, and would’ve continued playing till the end if it hadn’t destroyed my TV at the time. It’s Fire Emblem Path of Radiance!

Plot Synopsis: The protagonist, Ike, the son of Greil, begins the game as the newest member of his father’s mercenary company, the Greil Mercenaries.^[23] The company operates within the borders of Crimea, a nation of non-shapeshifting humans (referred to as “beorc”) that shares its southern border with Gallia, a nation of beast laguz, or humanoids capable of transforming into animals.

Plot: The plot is pretty good, but I never finished it because about 3/4ths of the way through the game my TV started acting incredibly wonky whenever I played this game and only this game. It would turn the screen black during any non fighting action and thus made it impossible to progress in the story.

Characters: Ike is an alright main character, but I enjoyed Soren the most out of the all characters, which turned into him becoming one of four unstoppable killing machines in my army. Ike was another one, Boyd the Archer, and finally Volke the Assassin. The rest of the cast was pretty good, and I enjoyed this game’s cast immensely.

Gameplay: What makes the Fire Emblem series so different from the rest of Tactical RPGs is the fact that if one of your army dies, they are dead for good. No bringing them back to life. Did you just accidentally send that Flying unit over the mountains only to get into range of an archer or sniper? You might as well say goodbye to that unit as it’s going to die a horrible death. This leads to you pretty much saving after every action and keeping an additional save file before each battle. Is it tedious? Absolutely. But for this type of game it was completely necessary to do so, if you wanted to ever clear the story and definitely if you wanted to keep everyone alive.

Art: The art in this game is pretty good, even today. The fight scenes are not as good as the rest of the game, but it’s okay.

Music: The music was perfectly suited for this game.

Overall: If you don’t mind saving after every single action this game is for you.

For those who like: TRPGs, RPGs, Great Plot, Amazing Cast of Characters, Decent Artwork, Fantastic Music.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.